The Wrong Widow

Two women file for the same Civil War soldier’s widow’s pension. The paper supports both.

Two women claim the same soldier’s widow’s pension. Both files look real. You decide which claim the records can carry — and reconstruct what happened without treating any one document as gospel.

The Wrong Widow drops you into an open pension fight in southeastern Indiana. Two women have filed Civil War widow’s pension claims for the same enlisted man. The bureau papers already contradict each other. Marriages, musters, censuses, death papers, and affidavits appear to back both sides.

Your job is not to decode a cipher. Your job is to adjudicate which claim is supportable from the paper, what each woman asserted, and what the households and the soldier’s trail actually show when you stop treating any single page as omniscient truth.

When you finish, the case resolves. Progressive hints stay sealed until you need them. The solution packet stays sealed until you submit.

What’s included

• player.pdf — 27-page player case (cold open, research catalog, exhibits D001–D017, worksheets, final adjudication questions)
• hints.pdf — 2 pages, progressive hints H1–H8 (open one rung at a time)
• sealed-solution.pdf — 5 pages, answer key + sealed confirmation exhibit D018 (open only after you commit)
• START-HERE — print notes and how to play

Play details

• Solo or small group
• About one evening
• US Letter · grayscale OK · print at 100%
• Medium difficulty — weigh competing authentic-looking records; no single smoking-gun page

Digital download · No shipping · Print US Letter at 100%.